Civilization
'' |image= |series= |production=40358-109 |producer(s)=Dawn Valazquez |story= |script=Phyllis Strong and Michael Sussman |director=Mike Vejar |imdbref=tt0572190 |guests=Diane DiLascio as Riann, Wade Anthony Williams as Garos and Charlie Brewer as ' Alien / Akaali #1' |previous_production= |next_production= |episode=ENT S01E09 |airdate=14 November 2001 |previous_release= |next_release= |story_date(s)=31 July 2151 |previous_story= |next_story= }} =Summary= Enterprise locates a planet inhabited by pre-industrial humanoids. Scanners also detect technology which does not correspond with the planet's technological level. Against Sub-Commander T'Pol's recommendation, Captain Archer decides to visit. Going in disguise, T'Pol suggests a distant rural landing site. Once in the Akaali city, Ensign Sato notices inhabitants that appear sick. Scans lead them to an old curio shop, but they encounter a force-field blocking the way. They are then confronted by a local apothecary, Riann. T'Pol stuns her, and when she awakens, Archer persuades her that he is an investigator from another city. Archer and Tucker revisit the shop during the day posing as antique collectors. They confront Garos, asking him why his DNA is not Akaali. After confirming Tucker and Archer are not natives either, he freely admits his origins: he is part of a survey mission from Malur, and the power source is merely a fabrication unit to provide food and clothes. Archer tells him about the illness, but he claims it is an incurable indigenous virus. Doctor Phlox, however, discovers that the water near the shop has been contaminated with a highly toxic chemical, tetracyanate 622. Archer and Riann observe the shop at night to try to see what is being delivered to Garos. They follow a man leaving the shop with a delivery. He leaves the crates in a forest clearing, and Archer is then attacked by a Malurian. Under the shop, Archer and Riann then discover that Garos is mining a veridium isotope, and the poisoned water is a by-product. Archer orders the reactor beamed up by Enterprise but the Malurians now have a warship in orbit. T'Pol beams the power plant into the alien ship's path, using torpedoes to detonate it and crippling their shields. On the planet, Archer provides Riann with antidote, and assures her that the Vulcans will monitor the planet to ensure the Malurians do not return. Errors and Explanations= # When Trip is picking the lock to the shop door, Archer claims that they have come 78 light years only to engage in breaking and entering. At the end of the episode we find that the date is now 31st July 2151, which puts it 106 days after the date given in Broken Bow. But Enterprise should take more than double this time to cover 78 light years, even going at the maximum Warp 5 all the way. They may have encountered a number of warp highways. # Having T'Pol just hang hair over her ears strikes me as a pretty poor disguise. Okay so maybe they don't have the plastic surgery tech to give her ears like the locals, but surely some sort of hat would be in order? The prescence of a hat might raise more suspicions. Character error # In the beginning, when they discuss current observations, Tucker calls the three observed neutron stars "stone cold". In reality, neutron stars are thought to be very hot, typically 6 x 105 Kelvin at the surface. Tucker is an engineer, not a scientist. Nit Central # Aaron Dotter on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 6:57 pm: It would seem that if they are trying to be less noticeable, that this mission would have been a good opportunity to use, oh I don't know, the TRANSPORTER! I realize that they don't like it but it would seem to be perfect for this mission, I mean, shouldn't they be as hidden as possible? (They use it to take care of the reactor) Brian Fitzgerald on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 8:09 pm: I thought that the transporter was still not considered safe to use on humans. I know that they used it in Broken Bow on Archer but that was a life or death situation. Say the failure rate for the transporter was 1%. Sounds safe enough to use for cargo, or to save Archer from a guy with a gun when their was no alternative; but that would be a 1 in 100 chance of being killed in a transportor accident. Would you be willing to take such a risk? Seniram 16:31, September 11, 2018 (UTC) Maybe they still don’t entirely trust it! # Not a nit, but what are they using to track their coordinates (when T'Pol asks Archer)? The communicators? Wouldn't it make sense to attach the communicator to themeselves, like, oh, in a badge? (It's obvious TPTB still have a TNG era mindset, at least for some things) They could be using a primitive form of injectable transponder. # muas on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 7:04 pm: T'Pol's comment to Trip when he objected to her order for the ship to prepare to leave orbit confused me. She said, "Need I reiterate, Mr. Tucker, that I am above your rank?" (or something along those lines). The part that confused me was the "reiterate" part. When did she say that in the first place? ''TomM on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 10:26 pm:''In the pilot, Broken Bow there was also a time when the Captain was off the ship, status unsure, when T'Pol and Trip disagreed on what to do. T'Pol attempted to pull rank and Trip backed down. The matter should have been clarified when T'Pol was permanently assigned, though. # Sparrow47 on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 7:09 pm: Few off the cuff nits. The aliens use a tractor beam to nab the crates, but then later in the episode we see they have a transporter! Wouldn't a transporter be a far more clandestine piece of equipment to use under these circumstances? The transporter could require more power. # SMT on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 7:26 pm: Astronomy is fairly good even today. I'd think that a cluster of three neutron stars roughly 78 light-years from Earth would have been discovered by now, rather than being a surprise to future spacefarers. I suppose there’s no chance of it being lost against the brightness of the Milky Way? # For people wanting to stay concealed from the local culture, they landed their pod rather close to the city, within sight of its lights, and in line-of-sight to boot. LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, March 05, 2002 - 8:25 pm: SMT, First of all, I don't think whether they are in line of sight of the village’s lights is really important, so long as those in the village can’t see the shuttlepod, and I doubt they could. As for distance, I personally don’t think the distance is necessarily the issue, but rather concealment. Parking the shuttle farther away will not necessarily prevent its discovery, because if, say someone can be out a mile from the village, say, returning from an excursion to another village and discover the shuttle, then they could just as well be out five or six miles away. The key is not necessarily how far away the shuttle is, but its proximity to roads, and its concealment with trees or bushes, and we did see the shuttlepod landing behind some trees. # SMT on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 7:26 pm: The Malorian(sp?) ship was supposed to be hidden from Enterprise in a geosynchronous orbit on the other side of the planet. Trouble was, Enterprise was in a low orbit(500 km), and thus should have been overtaking the ship in a higher orbit several times a day. (And if the planet orbits fast enough to make 500 kilometers geosynchronous, meaning every ninety minutes or so, I think we would have noticed. Really short nights for skulking around, for one.) Steve Oostrom on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 10:43 pm: SMT pointed out the part about the "geosynchronous orbit." Actually, in Trek, I think they use geosynchronous to mean any orbit that keeps the ship over the same spot on the surface. The Enterprise was 500 km above the surface, and because they had personnel on the surface, they were holding this position. Using the thrusters or the antigravity field would allow the ship to hold this position even though it would not be a true free-fall orbit. Thus, even though the ship is only 500 km above the surface, one orbit takes one local day to complete. The other ship could be on the other side the whole time, perhaps by coincidence or perhaps because the other ship arrived later, and wanted to avoid contact with the Enterprise, or detection by it. # Why in the heck does Archer give Garos back his gun when telling him to leave? I wouldn't trust these guys that much, not after a shootout. This could be Archer’s way of ensuring that Garos and his people have no reason to come back. # PaulG on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 8:25 pm: During the firefight, Riann mentions the ignition point of "residic oil" as 398 degrees. First, though she is rather knowledgeable, I find it Data-esque that she remembers the precise temperature, especially in the middle of the firefight. Second, I wonder how she would know the exact temperature anyway - I doubt that lamp oil is used often by an apothecary. Third, I doubt she has instrumentation capable of measuring temperature that precisely. Fourth, I am guessing that the UT is doing on-the-fly metric conversions as she uses the term "liter". Finally, assuming that these are metric measures and she mean Celsius temperature, that ignition point seems high. The common lamp oil Kerosene's ignition temperature is only 210 degrees Celsius. While I suppose this particular oil could be twice as high, for some reason I doubt it. TomM on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 - 10:26 pm: As you mentioned in the latter part, apparently the translator converts to metric. Riann might have said that the flash point of the oil was between two other benchmark temperatures ( for example, the melting point of tin and the boiling point of whatever) and the tranlator interpolated the metric temperature. And whether lamp oil is used extensively by an apothecary or not, she is more than just an apothecary, she is, in essence a chemist. (Dr. Phlox comments on how surprisingly advanced her methods are.) Finally, when Earth was at that stage of development, most of the lamp oil (and about half of the candle tallow)was derived frm animal fat (usually whale blubber) rather than petroleum oils. Different animal fats flash at different temperatures, and this "residic oil" might be at the high end of the scale. # ScottN on Sunday, November 18, 2001 - 10:10 am: I thought that beaming antimatter was difficult/troublesome (cf. TNG:Peak Performance), but they can beam an entire reactor, including its antimatter with a semi-experimental first generation transporter??? Ghel on Sunday, November 18, 2001 - 12:39 pm: Maybe they just don't realize how unsafe it is yet. . . I'd hate to be around when they learn THAT lesson :) Charles Cabe (Ccabe) on Sunday, November 18, 2001 - 9:40 pm: That could be a part of the dangerous mystique of the transporter. I kinda would like to see somekinda anti-matter/transporter accident.LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, November 21, 2001 - 7:26 am: Actually, Peak Performance made no such mention of transporting antimatter being difficult. First, you have to remember that what Wesley said to Riker and Burke was that it was merely an "experiment", a ruse he used to sneak antimatter from the Enterprise onto the Hathaway. He never said it was "antimatter", because using Enterprise antimatter would probably have been a breach of the parameters set for the wargame (i.e.: cheating). I doubt he told them there was antimatter in that sphere, because he knew they’d never let him take it. For all Burke or Picard knew, it was some chemical or something. Second, he didn’t say it was too volatile to transport. He told Burke it he had to dispose of it "safely" because it was really volatile, so he’d just beam it into space and keep it particalized. In other words, beaming it was a way to safely dispose of it. He had to beam it because it was volatile, not that it was too volatile to beam, or so volatile that beaming it was difficult or troublesome. # Archer tells T’Pol in the beginning of Act 4 that the Malurians are mining a veridium isotope, which T’Pol says are used primarily in explosives. So veridium is now a metal? In Reunion (TNG), K’Mpec told Picard that veridium 6 was a slow acting poison with no antidote that his assassin used to kill him. True, metals can be poisonous when ingested, such as mercury, it sounded in Reunion as if veridium were a poison, rather than a metal used as one. Perhaps the poison used veridium as it’s main ingredient? # LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 10:50 pm: Why is that when Garos speaks to Archer and Trip in Act 2 and 3, the universal translator does its job, but when the Malurian courier calls for the shuttle to pick up the crates in the woods in Act 3, Archer and Riann hear him in Malurian? ''Josh M on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 11:35 pm:''Maybe they hear it in their languages and only we hear it in Malurian. Category:EpisodesCategory:Enterprise